From manufacturing an optical fibre, a certain length of said optical fibre is wound on a bobbin in view of its storage and its transport to a place of use. This length is typically of the order of a few kilometers.
In view of being able to test a sample of optical fibre from said bobbin, it is known to wind an excess length of optical fibre over a dedicated magazine arranged in the bobbin. This excess length corresponding to a portion of the optical fibre first wound over the bobbin, such a magazine allows making this excess length accessible after winding the whole of the fibre.
FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a bobbin 1′, of known type, comprising such a magazine.
The bobbin 1′ comprises a cylindrical reel 10 to receive the optical fibre, and two rims 11, 12 which extend radially to each end of the reel 10 in order to axially retain the optical fibre wound over the reel.
One of the two rims (in this case, the rim 11) is provided with a port 110 for the optical fibre 100.
Said rim 11 separates the reel 10 from a cylindrical magazine 13 which is intended to receive an excess length 100′ of optical fibre.
As can be best seen in FIG. 1B, the rim has a circumferential edge 130 to axially retain the excess length 100′ of optical fibre wound over the magazine.
To wind an excess length 100′ of optical fibre over the magazine, an operator passes a portion 100′ of optical fibre of the desired length through the port 110 (from the reel towards the magazine) then manually winds this portion of optical fibre over the magazine 13, behind the circumferential edge 130. Then, to avoid any unintentional unwinding of the optical fibre, he attaches its end 100″ onto the rim 11 by means of an adhesive 101.
This manual operation takes a long time and is costly.
The document EP 0 509 384 discloses a device for inserting an optical fibre through a port arranged in a rim of a bobbin.